China Dismisses Local Leaders after Angry Protest

The Communist Party boss of a Chinese city and head of law enforcement were dismissed Saturday for mishandling violent protests last month after a young man’s mysterious death, a state news agency said.

About 1,000 people gathered June 19 after the 24-year-old chef was found dead outside a hotel in Shishou city in central Hubei province. Police said he killed himself, but rumors spread that he was killed by gangsters or the hotel boss.

Protesters blocked roads, smashed windows and set fire to the hotel while preventing police from moving the body, the official Xinhua News Agency reported at the time. An amateur video clip posted online showed hundreds of protesters surging toward police, picking up objects from the ground and hurling them at the officers, who retreated.

Read the Xinhua report here. See also a previous report about three people who have been arrested for the protests.